Bernie Sanders calls for wealth tax

The logical conclusion if you're looking to close the wealth gap. Taxing income will never do it.

Will the proposal gain any steam?

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described socialist, called for a progressive estate tax on multi-millionaires and billionaires during a speech on Saturday.

“A nation will not survive morally or economically when so few have so much while so many have so little,” Mr. Sanders said at the Vermont AFL-CIO annual convention.

“We need a tax system which asks the billionaire class to pay its fair share of taxes and which reduces the obscene degree of wealth inequality in America,” said Mr. Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats.

According to Mr. Sanders, taxing the top .25 percent of wealthiest Americans is the fairest way to reduce wealth inequality, lower the $17 trillion national debt and pay for investments in infrastructure, education and other neglected national priorities.

This is a great plan if you can stomach the idea of the entire country subsisting on imported food. Taxing all assets will put many farmers out of business.

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According to Mr. Sanders, taxing the top .25 percent of wealthiest Americans...

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In the interest of disclosure, I'll make it clear here that I work in PR for an ag advocacy organization.

That said, I'd still want to see where that line is in net worth. Admittedly, I didn't spend a lot of time digging for it, but what I did find was a University of Michigan study using 2011 data that placed a net worth of $1.147 m in the 95th percentile. What's the figure for the 99.75th percentile? How many people are we talking about?